190 THE PEKIBONCA AND TSCHOTAGAMA 



canoes are paddled right up to their very foot, and 

 then lifted out of the water and carried by the guides 

 up the steep ascent to the summit of the little rocky 

 islet which separates the two branches of the chute, 

 replaced in the water above, and paddled away up- 

 stream, but not without considerable effort, from the 

 very brink of the falls. It is certainly a very risky 

 undertaking, but there appears at this point to be no 

 other means of surmounting the obstacles to the as- 

 cent of the river. 



We are now approaching the wildest scenery and 

 roughest portion of our trip. A mile above the Por- 

 tage de 1'Ile, which is situated, as already explained, 

 between the two divisions of the seventh falls, are the 

 Portage and Chute au Diable. At the Chute a Caron 

 and the Chute du Bonhomme you are naturally led to 

 inquire the origin of their names, and listen with deep- 

 est interest to the legend of Bonhomme Guillaume, 

 for whom the one was named, and the story of the 

 narrow escape at the other of a foreman lumber-driver 

 named Caron, whose name has been ever since con- 

 nected with the cataract, and in all human proba- 

 bility ever will be. But when you learn the name of 

 the Devil's Falls, and take in the view of the surround- 

 ings, there is no temptation to seek an explanation of 

 the title it bears. It is all too awfully -plain, and, just 

 as in the case of Cape Trinity on the Saguenay, the 

 appropriateness of the name is unquestionable. Amid 

 such gloomy scenes as meet the view, as the canoes 

 approach the series of terrific gorges and chasms 

 adown which are hurled the various channels of the 

 stream, we feel indeed that " the banners of Hell's 



